Chapter 1977 Sacred Relic

The massive shadow behind the clouds floated and gradually faded, finally disappearing completely after more than ten minutes.

Everything that had just happened felt like a hallucination.

"Goddess, what… what was that?" Karasul clutched his hands to his chest, his lips somewhat dry. "That evil, enormous…"

Hao Ren was expressionless, not even turning his head. "That was Lokmaughthon, or some part of it."

All the monks and Church knights gasped in unison.

"But it doesn't look like it's completely broken free of its seal," Hao Ren turned around, his voice calm, trying to reassure the others. "That should be its projection in the real world. The barrier left by the Goddess is still blocking it, so it was just shadows. But in any case, the Abyss of Oblivion's imprisonment seems to be on the verge of collapse. The collapse could happen at any moment."

"We should go to Asueman immediately," Karasul said quickly.

Hao Ren nodded, his gaze slowly sweeping across the dim cathedral.

Exhausted monks, tense guardian knights, frightened refugees—because the catacombs had limited space for refugees, there were quite a few gathered in the cathedral's above-ground structure.

These people were already exhausted, and more importantly, their mental fatigue had reached a dangerous threshold. They were facing a nightmarish power that could not be measured by ordinary means. With Lokmaughthon's projection having already descended and the dark shadows wandering the city growing stronger, these people would not be able to hold out for long. So, before leaving, he had to find a way to help them survive.

He rubbed his chin, muttering softly, "I need to find a way to leave some kind of boundary or protection for this cathedral…"

Lily, upon hearing this, quickly covered her tail. "There aren't many hairs left!"

"I didn't say I wanted you to pluck your fur!" Hao Ren glared at the husky spirit in annoyance, then took out some red paper from his dimensional pocket.

These red papers were clearly torn from somewhere else, and you could still see traces of transparent tape on the edges. On the front of the red paper, you could see crooked calligraphy. Hao Ren shook the red paper open, revealing a couplet: The top line read, "Haven't known what to write for two months," the bottom line read, "Thought for three days and put together two lines of nonsense," and the banner read, "Just having words is fine…"

Friends with good memories should remember that this was Raven 12345's original work…

This couplet was once pasted on the front door of Hao Ren's mansion. According to the crazy goddess, the pen of a true god would surely bring good fortune and avert disaster, and this couplet could make the entire mansion righteous and free from evil. Hao Ren initially gritted his teeth and pretended to be an advanced worker, putting up the couplet according to the leader's instructions. But after only two months, he couldn't bear the heartfelt shame, and he tore the couplet down—having such an unlucky thing pasted on the door every day, people would come to take pictures with their phones. Those who knew would say that young people had fresh and unconventional ideas, but those who didn't would think that a group of performance artists lived inside. Who could stand it…

But people in another world don't recognize Chinese characters, they can definitely stand it…

"You guys paste these things on the cathedral door, and they can block the erosion of nightmares and chaotic forces," Hao Ren said, handing the couplet to Father Bernstein with a solemn expression. Even when Xuanzang was holding the scriptures, he wasn't necessarily as serious as Hao Ren. While handing it over, he explained to him, "This one goes on the left, this one on the right, and this one goes on the top of the door frame, horizontally, it's called the banner. Hey, you're holding it upside down, the words are read this way… Don't ask so many questions, just treat this as a divine talisman… When I say it's a divine talisman, it's a divine talisman! Did the Creation Goddess ever say that small advertisements weren't allowed at the gates of Heaven?"

Father Bernstein took the infinitely powerful couplet in confusion. Later, Hao Ren looked at it and felt that something was missing, so he simply took out two more pieces of red paper from his dimensional pocket and used the signature pen he had taken from Raven 12345's office to write two door gods in a flamboyant style, one reading "Goddess Protects Me" and the other reading "Evil Be Gone," and then handed them to the priest reverently: "Paste these two as well, one on each side of the two doors."

He thought to himself that he was also a Pope, so leaving some ink treasures, even if it wasn't as good as Raven's own handwriting, would at least be comparable to a sub-artifact. Lily, a husky spirit, could roar out a hundred meters of holy light in this broken place of Coro. As a demigod who had been certified and employed, he couldn't be worse than Lily. Even if it was worse, he wrote it with Raven 12345's signature pen, and there were even the goddess's teeth marks on the pen…

The situation in Luan City was precarious, and it was always good to have more security.

After everything was arranged, Hao Ren and Karasul selected their men and prepared to set off for the Crystal Holy Mountain Asueman.

When leaving the cathedral, Hao Ren looked back and was pleased to see that Father Bernstein had pasted the red papers on the door according to his instructions—although the priest was still suspicious of these red papers, he at least understood the principle of rather believing it than not. The towering Cathedral of the Creation Goddess stood quietly in the darkness, with Raven 12345's handwritten red couplet pasted on the door. The two gods completed their first divine power fusion under these extremely special conditions, and the style collision coefficient was at least 20,000 stars…

Hao Ren looked at it for a while and shook his head in admiration: "So damn festive."

The couplet radiated a faint white light in the darkness, dispelling all evils and making it difficult for demons to invade.

Hao Ren, Karasul, and others, with the warriors of the Holy See Investigation Team and the barbarians of the sub-races, soon arrived near the Crystal Holy Mountain Asueman and stopped at a place overlooking the foot of the Holy Mountain.

The journey across the wilderness and the twisted monsters born in the darkness that they encountered along the way could be skipped over; they were only adding a few hundred more collision victories to Hao Ren's North Star.

Standing on a high ground near the City of God's Favor, Hao Ren gazed into the distance.

Asueman was more majestic than he had imagined, but it didn't look like a "mountain" in the normal sense at all.

It was as if a huge cluster of crystals had been inserted straight into the earth. Asueman stood abruptly in the center of a circular basin. The white crystalline mountain was steep and orderly, and the tall and short crystal pillars were integrated together, forming the main body of this eternal miracle. The higher the Holy Mountain went, the thinner it became. At the top of the mountain, you could vaguely see the last bit of floating light and shadow, as well as a faint crack.

And at the foot of Asueman, where the City of God's Favor once stood, there were now only large pits and a few scattered ruins.

Just as Elder Bishop Holzman had said, eighty or ninety percent of the entire City of God's Favor had disappeared: the magnificent city buildings had disappeared, and there was an unpleasant stench in the air. Large and small pits were distributed within the three concentric circles at the foot of Mount Asueman, like traces formed after hot molten iron was poured into rosin. At the bottom of each pit, you could still see a slight heat rising, as well as suspicious, glittering solidified material.

"It looks like a meteor shower destroyed the city," Lily said in surprise, clicking her tongue. "Are those big pits where the meteors fell?"

Hao Ren looked around, craning his neck. "It would be great if Old Wang were here, he's an expert in this field."

Karasul stood blankly in the dim light, silent and pale.

Although he had already heard about the cowardice incident that happened in the City of God's Favor from Bishop Holzman, he was still in a state of great shock and horror after witnessing it with his own eyes.

Now, only his strong willpower as a high-ranking priest was supporting him, preventing him from collapsing in the cold wind.

"That's the Palace of Holy Images," Karasul finally said after a while, pointing to the end of the ruins, at the foot of Mount Asueman. His hoarse voice startled himself, "The Church's highest center."

Hao Ren also saw the magnificent building—it was an extremely special twin tower with a unique style in the world of Coro. The lower part of the Palace of Holy Images was a platinum palace with multiple domes and palace walls, while the upper part was two high towers, and a long corridor extended from the top of the towers, connecting the two spires, so the structure of the entire Palace of Holy Images looked like a huge door.

Now, this sacred palace was also shrouded in darkness. The eternal holy light that once burned outside the palace had long since disappeared, and only a thin layer of black mist was swirling around.

Hao Ren's eyes narrowed slightly.

The Palace of Holy Images was not only shrouded in darkness, but in the depths of that black mist, he saw a dim yellow halo, like the twilight of dusk.

The evil force permeated out from that building from the inside out.

"If we want to go to Asueman, we must first pass through the Palace of Holy Images," Karasul said slowly, suppressing the bitterness in his heart. "There is a platform in the Palace of Holy Images. On the platform, we can call the 'gatekeeper' of the Holy Mountain, and then the gatekeeper will open a portal to the interior of Asueman. But to be honest, in the current situation… I don't know what the situation of the gatekeeper is, and she may not even respond to us."

Hao Ren tilted his head slightly to look at the silent "Darkness" and stepped forward: "We must try."

The Palace of Holy Images brought a heavy sense of oppression.

In the days of light, this oppression came from the sacredness, the greatness, and the aura emanating from the building itself. But now, the oppression felt by those standing in front of the Palace of Holy Images was only the instinctive rejection and fear of the evil chaotic forces. The towering palace walls and the majestic twin towers above the palace walls stood in the darkness, but they gave the illusion that they were gradually collapsing—they seemed to have turned into living ghosts, trembling and twisting, making strange wailing sounds in the night sky.

Putting these chaotic illusions behind him, Hao Ren steeled his heart and led the team into the gate of the Palace of Holy Images.